Home safety questions

[MJJean]

Looks like having a Grey means some lifestyle changes and home repairs. I got about a week to 10 days til Cheney is ready to come home so I am trying to get everything ready before then. This is starting to sound a lot like having a baby human,lol. I need to baby proof the house. Any tips or advice I haven't heard yet would be much appreciated.

Things we need to do/get installed:
Carbon monoxide detector
Fire-Natural gas detector (those are kinda cool, they do double duty)
Rid the house of all non-stick cookware
Make sure all window screens are in good repair and that the screen doors have working locks on the latches and that the closer arm close them properly

Should I also use those outlet covers like people use for babies and toddlers?

Is my non-stick electric wok, waffle maker and countertop grill ok or do they need to go because they are coated?

With 3 dogs i use a lot of bleach w water as cleaner, but bleach is not good for Cheney, so what cleaning/disinfecting/stench removal cleaners work well? I hear a lot about vinegar. Anyone know the vinegar and water mix ratio?

Anything I haven't thought of or read about yet?

 

[Spiritbird]

Good for gettng prepared. Some suggestions is to switch to vinegar and water cleaners and to buy the book Parrots for Dummies as it is fantastic. The auther will tell you about GSE (grapefruit seed extract) and how to use it. Any telfon coated appliance is likely to give off fumes if heated enough. There is new cookware available now that is non stick. Just google teflon free cookware and they should pop up for you. I personally do not use outlet covers because my grey is always supervised when out of the cage. Othere items if you do not know about them would be no candles, sprays of any kind (even Pam), plug ins. We cannot put our parrots in a bubble but we can be educated on safety. Vinegar and water are mixed 1tbsp. per quart. In that you can put GSE. That is 1 drop. per oz. of water. I even soak the birds food dishes overnight in that mix. I believe and use full spectrum lighting and RabbitAir filtration in my home. It does get expensive for sure.

 

[ann]

i think spirit bird has it covered lol but i have an idea for a bird safe air freshener. you can take an orange and stick cloves in it and sit it on a window sill.
you can also try:
How to Make Vanilla Air Fresheners | eHow.com
How to Make an Orange Peel Air Freshener With Salt | eHow.com
Avian Enrichment: Bird Safe Cleaning Products
Homemade Bird Cage Cleaner Recipe - Bird Safe Cage Cleaner - Make Your Own Bird Cage Cleaner
hope this helped! and good luck with your new bird!!!